Destination known and looking for jobs!: Udiapur, India

We left Pushkar via bus to Amjer to catch a train south to Udaipur. The buses left Pushkar about every thirty minutes or so. We had just missed one bus and climb aboard the next almost empty bus. Jeff and I take two seats and our bags take another seat. As it gets closer to departure time, the bus begins to fill with locals on their way home from temple worship. A group of four ladies, dressed in their colorful saris decorated with sequins, squeeze into the two seats next to Jeff and I. Jeff, being a gentleman, gets up and stands in the aisle for our 30 minute bus ride over the hill. As the bus travels the women begin to sing. Their beautiful voices entertained us all the way to the train station.

The train was once again on time and we had a pleasant journey to Udaipur. Unfortunately, we never saw the tomato soup guy, but when the train stopped for a couple of minutes, Jeff jumped off and bought a handful of fried spicy vegetables. They were so good in fact, he jumped off again before the train left the station to get two more helpings worth.

We arrive into Udaipur and had the greatest tuck-tuck driver drop us off at the Panorama Guesthouse. The driver, Bunty, was telling jokes and had us laughing the whole way. He summed up Indian perfectly too by telling us “In India, anything this possible, but nothing is available.” We check into our guesthouse with a perfectly clean room (no sleeping bags!!) and fall asleep.

The next day was Jeff’s birthday, so we slept in and had breakfast on the rooftop café in the warm sun. We then wandered around familiarizing ourselves with Udiapur. The city is built around Lake Pichola, with a huge palace on its banks and is surrounded by the Aravilli hills. In the center of the lake is a building called the Lake Palace that looks like it is just floating there. I found a great little bookshop with some postcards. After I picked out my postcards, I had to go find Jeff to get some money. I found him next door in the clothing shop, dressed in a man’s formal attire. The shop owner completed the look by placing a turban on Jeff’s head. Very cute! Jeff disrobed and we go back to the book shop and spend some time chatting with owner. He informs us where we can buy some birthday beers for Jeff. We find the liquor store and take our cold beers back to the patio at the guesthouse to enjoy them.

Birthday dinner was enjoyed across the lake on different rooftop restaurant. In Udiapur, around dinner time every restaurant is playing James Bond’s Octipussy starring Roger Moore. The film uses the floating palace in many of its scenes and has become Udiapur’s ‘claim to fame.’ In my opinion, the movie was horrible and Peirce makes a much better James Bond.

The next morning around ten, we are driven from the hotel to the house of the owner. His wife Kommu, was our teacher through Indian cuisine. We learned to make potato pakora which are thinly chopped or sliced potatoes dipped in spicy batter and fried. This is actually what Jeff was jumping on and the train for! Kommu really helped learn what we were really eating. We learned to make masala chai tea. On the train, when the chai guy comes down the aisle he’s always saying, “Chai, garam chai.” Jeff asked Kommu what the difference was between garam chai and masala chai. Kommu chuckled and answered that ‘garam’ just means hot. We also learned how to make dahl (lentils), potato paluo (sort of like Indian fried rice), aloo gobhi (potato and cauliflower curry), and chapattis (Indian style flatbread). We had a lot fun that afternoon with Kommu and enjoyed a delicious meal too. It’s the best thing we’ve done in India.

We get back to the guesthouse, just in time for Jeff’s case of Dehli belly to hit (but let me clarify that was not from Kommu's cooking, but I think the chicken he ate the night before). It puts him out of order for the next couple of days. I spend my time reading my books, surfacing the internet, chatting with other travelers and watching the two tortoises that lived on the patio. Dollar was the larger one and Euro was the smaller one. It was very entertaining to watch Dollar eat a cut up tomato.

We had a six fifteen PM train out of Udiapur on our last day. Jeff was finally feeling better so we crammed in all the sight-seeing highlights before we departed. We walked up to the City Palace, but decided not to take the tour. We did take a 30 minute boat ride around the lake and a cable car ride up one of the hills to a temple.

We head back to the guesthouse to say our goodbyes to the staff and collect our things. Our tuck-tuck broke down on the way to the train station, but another was right there to pick us up and bring us the rest of the way. We walk into the station, find our train number easily on the reader board, and walk out unto the platform. There was our train, the Mewar Express, waiting patiently for us to board. We find our seats in sleeper class and store our bags. There is a family sitting across from us with a little girl who had her left leg in a cast. Another one of her family members also had a broken leg and boarded the train using crutches. We smile politely across the aisles. The train leaves the station just a minute late and isn’t that crowded. We settle in for a nice and peaceful four hour ride to Bundi. Or so we thought….